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Networking · head to head

Eclipse Mosquitto vs RabbitMQ

Eclipse Mosquitto logo

Eclipse Mosquitto

Networking

Small, EPL-licensed MQTT broker that runs on hardware other brokers cannot

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
RabbitMQ logo

RabbitMQ

Databases

Open-source message broker supporting AMQP and other protocols

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Eclipse Mosquitto there is no clustering: Mosquitto is a single process, so high availability means building your own failover and accepting session loss on switchover.; RabbitMQ not built for replay: once consumed, a message is gone, which is exactly what Kafka exists to change
  • They diverge on capability: Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, RabbitMQ covers Flexible routing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Eclipse Mosquitto and RabbitMQ actually diverge.

Attributes where Eclipse Mosquitto and RabbitMQ differ
AttributeEclipse MosquittoRabbitMQ
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeOpen source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, DockerLinux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes
CategoryNetworkingDatabases

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Eclipse Mosquitto

  • MQTT 5.0 support
  • Very small footprint
  • Bridging
  • WebSockets listener
  • Command line clients
  • Dynamic security plugin

Only in RabbitMQ

  • Flexible routing
  • Multiple protocols
  • Management UI
  • Clustering and mirroring

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Eclipse Mosquitto

  • A home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything elsenot RabbitMQ
  • An industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud brokernot RabbitMQ
  • Local development and testing of MQTT clients without provisioning a cloud IoT servicenot RabbitMQ
  • An air-gapped deployment where a broker with no licence server and no phone-home behaviour is a requirementnot RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ

  • Distributing background jobs to a pool of workers with retriesnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Decoupling services that need delivery rather than a replayable historynot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Routing messages by pattern to different consumers from one publishernot Eclipse Mosquitto

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Eclipse Mosquitto

  • There is no clustering: Mosquitto is a single process, so high availability means building your own failover and accepting session loss on switchover.
  • Persistence is a local file rather than a replicated store, so a disk failure or an unclean shutdown can lose retained messages and queued QoS traffic.
  • Practical capacity is a few thousand concurrent clients on typical hardware, so a growing device fleet eventually forces a migration to a clustered broker.
  • The Eclipse Public Licence is weak copyleft rather than permissive, which some legal teams treat as a blocker when embedding the broker in a shipped commercial product.
  • There is no commercial support to buy from the project, so production incidents rely on community mailing lists or on paying a third party who happens to know the codebase.

RabbitMQ

  • Not built for replay: once consumed, a message is gone, which is exactly what Kafka exists to change
  • Throughput ceilings are lower than a log-based platform under very heavy streaming loads
  • Queues that build up degrade broker performance, so consumer lag is an operational problem rather than just a backlog
  • Clustering and partition behaviour has historically been a source of hard-to-diagnose problems

Pricing, plan by plan

Eclipse Mosquitto

Free
  • Eclipse MosquittoFree
    • Eclipse Public License 2.0 with Eclipse Distribution Licence
    • MQTT 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1
    • No client or message limits beyond your hardware

RabbitMQ

Free
  • RabbitMQFree
    • Full functionality
    • Self-hosted
    • No usage limits

Which should you pick?

Choose Eclipse Mosquitto if

  • You need mqtt 5.0 support.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker.
  • You also want very small footprint.
Eclipse Mosquitto review

Choose RabbitMQ if

  • You need flexible routing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
  • You also want multiple protocols.
RabbitMQ review

Questions people ask

Is Eclipse Mosquitto or RabbitMQ better?
Neither clearly leads. Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and RabbitMQ at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Eclipse Mosquitto or RabbitMQ?
Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and RabbitMQ at Free.
Does Eclipse Mosquitto or RabbitMQ run on more platforms?
Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker. RabbitMQ runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
Can I use Eclipse Mosquitto for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Eclipse Mosquitto best used for?
Eclipse Mosquitto is most often used for a home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything else, an industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud broker, local development and testing of mqtt clients without provisioning a cloud iot service, an air-gapped deployment where a broker with no licence server and no phone-home behaviour is a requirement. Of those, a home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything else and an industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud broker are not what RabbitMQ is typically brought in for.
What can Eclipse Mosquitto do that RabbitMQ cannot?
Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener. RabbitMQ covers Flexible routing, Multiple protocols, Management UI, Clustering and mirroring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Eclipse Mosquitto: Can Mosquitto be clustered?

No. It is a single process. High availability requires an external failover arrangement you build yourself.

RabbitMQ: Is RabbitMQ free?

Yes, open source with no licence fee. Broadcom sells commercial support.

Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

Eclipse Public License 2.0 alongside the Eclipse Distribution License, a weak copyleft rather than a permissive licence.

RabbitMQ: RabbitMQ or Kafka?

RabbitMQ is a message broker: simpler to run and better at flexible routing and work queues. Kafka is a replayable event log built for very high throughput streaming, and much heavier to operate.

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

A few thousand concurrent connections on ordinary hardware; beyond that, use a clustered broker.

RabbitMQ: Can RabbitMQ replay messages?

Not in the way Kafka can. Messages are removed once acknowledged, so rebuilding state from history is not the model.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

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